Lima - Museums

Lima Travel Blog

Example of ceramics at the Larco Museum - the guy lying down is either getting a massage, or he´s in a lot of trouble!

Very cultural day today! We took a taxi to the Museo Rafael Larco, a private museum with an outstanding collection of Peruvian antiquities - lots of gold pieces and a massive collection of ceramics from the various Peruvian cultures. This museum also has good English explanations in the main collection, although none in the temporary exhibition. The most unusual section here is the erotic collection - two rooms of rather explicit depictions of the sexual practices of the ancient Peruvians, in ceramics. WE gather these were generally found within funeral mounds and were not intended to titillate, but rather to depict the difference between life and death. We did find it quite interesting, thought, that even the skeletons had rather large willies!! This museum is rather expensive for here, at 32 soles per person, but definitely well worth a visit.

Examples of Incan pottery at the ARcheological Museum.

The toilets are the best so far in Lima!

Our next stop was the Museum of ARchaeology, Anthropology and Peruvian History. This quite near the Larco Museum, and is found by following the blue line from the Larco to it - this is clearly painted on the footpath and easy to follow, a terrific idea. Quite a few of the exhibits here are similar to those at the Larco, but there is a lot more information about the various cultures and their temples. There are lots more textiles here, and a pretty thorough explanation of history post-Hispanic population up to the modern day. A section of the building was the home of two of the Peruvian liberators - Don Jose de San Martin and Simon Bolivar. This section has some furniture from their era, along with a few original portraits and some replica clothing.

A Cuzcan hand weaver at the Archaeological Museum.

You can spend quite a bit of time here wanding around, and there are a couple of lovely courtyards to have a rest in.

Afterwards, we got a taxi back to our hotel for some lunch (our taxi driver, when finding out we were from Australia, said how sorry he was that STeve Irwin had died and raved on about how cute Bindi is!!). For lunch, we went in the opposite direction to normal from our hotel and found a quaint little cafe serving a menu for 6 soles each - a delicious chicken soup and then fish or beef for the main. You can eat well here on a budget. Had our group meeting for the tour in the evening and then went to Larco Mall, a western style shopping centre in the suburb of Miraflores, for our group dinner. The meal was much pricier than we´re used to, but it was very nice. Tour starts tomorrow, and we leave Lima.